The first of Neotel’s consumer products is now available to limited parts of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Yesterday, the initial NeoConnect Prime bundle was introduced to employees of the company.

The NeoConnect Prime package has had customers since March 2008 as part of the commercial testing phase. The pilot phase has been successfully completed and the first of the commercial bundles has now been made available by Neotel.

Initially, the company intends to address primarily those consumers who have already approached Neotel and have registered for the services during the pilot phase. However, a formal public announcement, with a wider range of bundle options, will be made during the course of May.

In-depth consumer research

The NeoConnect product was designed after conducting in-depth consumer research. “We picked up a number of pain points for consumers during this research process, including the issues relating to the perceived speed and capacities for internet access, lack of voice quality and reliability, the complexity associated with obtaining & setting-up services and a lack of true value for the customer,” says Ajay Pandey MD and CEO at Neotel. “We believe that we have addressed these points in the design of our offering to consumers.”

The NeoConnect product handles a number of different tasks such as internet access, voice and SMS over a single connection and service. Built on the CDMA2000 EVDO network, it provides customers with high-speed internet access and combines the best of fixed-line and mobile. The current peak speed offered is 2.4 Mbps and Neotel expects an average user experience ranging between 300 to 700 Kbps. Future upgrades will see even faster speeds brought to the market.

Addresses several pain points

“We are very excited about the introduction of this product into the market, as we believe it addresses several pain points highlighted by consumers during our extensive market research,” says Pandey. “This is just the first of a number of packages we will bring to the market and we believe that customers will not only find value in what we offer, but will be able to choose a package that best meets their needs.”

Pandey adds that additional packages will be made available to consumers next month. “There will be packages that address lower usage and are therefore lower in price, and then of course there will be those packages that directly speak to high-end consumers,” he concludes.

I-Net Bridge